In an interview for web portal NOVA TV, MEP Knut Fleckenstein refers the recent political events in Macedonia. “I think that the Prespa Agreement will accelerate reformation processes and that the Macedonian government will remain dedicated to these processes compulsory for integration in EU and NATO. I have very positive impressions of the Committee for National Reconciliation and their work. ...

The President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov attends the 9th Bosporus Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. At the summit, Ivanov spoke about the challenges Macedonia faces, including the integration in the EU. “The EU was the most successful peace project that mobilised the countries in the Balkans. We are voluntarily changing our societies in order to become a part of this union. ...

The European Commission (EC) shares the stand of the EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, that Hungary’s decision to grant asylum to former PM Nikola Gruevski warrants further explanations from the Hungarian authorities. Spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said on Thursday that there was no running away from the rule of law. As he added, the asylum ...

According to the Hungarian authorities, a possibility of former PM Nikola Gruevski being extradited doesn’t exist. As Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi said an interview with ECHO TV on Tuesday, after the approval of the asylum request, Gruevski cannot be delivered to “a country in which he is a target of persecution.” The following day, in Macedonia, FM Nikola Dimitrov didn’t ...

On his official Facebook profile, on Tuesday, former PM Nikola Gruevski said he’d been given granted political asylum in Hungary due to political persecution in Macedonia from the SDSM-led government. According to Gruevski, he has received information that preparations are underway to kill him in prison. The former VMRO-DPMNE leader added he continued the struggle for the “Macedonian cause”. The ...

At the regional leader’s meeting in Vienna on Monday, organised by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said that countries from the Western Balkans (WB) had a European perspective, adding nonetheless that each would be evaluated separately on that path. Each country will be treated separately, according to its merits, ...

According to Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov, it will be better for both his country and Greece if Macedonia joins the EU and NATO sooner. “There’s no better place than the European Union. In Greece, too, when the crisis appeared, who actually helped it? Who stood next to it? The European Union. If, God forbid, a problem appears, who will help ...

A roundtable on revision of financing of political parties and election campaign was held on Thursday. According to the Head of the EU Delegation to Macedonia, Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, parties need to be transparent over how they are financed and who their donors are. As he added, illegal financing represented a great risk from the standpoint of corruption. The President ...

On Thursday, the EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, held a meeting in Helsinki with a delegation of VMRO-DPMNE’s reformist wing, consisting of Petar Bogojeski, MP EMilija Aleksandrova and former Health Minister Nikola Todorov, who had recently been excluded from the party, but are participating in the EPP Congress in Finland’s capital upon an invitation ...

The EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said on Wednesday he had held a useful talk in Helsinki with VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski. “I was crystal-clear that ratification of the Prespa Agreement must now be finalised fast, without any obstacle. I welcome his commitment not to obstruct procedure in Parliament,” he tweeted. As Hahn added ...